The History and Evolution: A Big Data Analysis of the National Innovation Systems in South Korea

This study is a starting point to analyze South Korean national innovation systems (KNIS) using big data and provide insights for policy makers regarding how they implement the dynamic process of innovation systems. It examines KNIS that has developed over the past 14 years from 2003 to 2016 during the governments of Roh Moo-hyun, Lee Myung-bak, and Park Geun-hye. The aim of this study is to evaluate the KNIS in three ways. The first way is to analyze the NIS of the three governments based on data of 470,000 national research and development (R&D) projects, following which the second way is to compare innovative outcomes of the three governments. The last way is to figure out the characteristics of the KNIS in innovative performance. Our analysis reveals that the KNIS was developed and evolved from 2003 to 2008, maintained until 2012, and gradually declined, even though national R&D investment increased for 14 years. Empirical evidence highlights that policies implemented for more than a decade do not effectively link to economic outcomes, resulting in an imbalance between innovation input and innovation output. This study further argues that the use of NIS concept in South Korea seems to be skewed towards measuring national performance from a narrower perspective.